Gluten-free and SCD

Birthday Girl

Last Saturday was my nineteenth birthday and I celebrated it in style, wearing my favourite bright red skinny jeans and Edward Scissorhands tee shirt with my pearl necklace. Last but not least, the outfit was completed with my new birthday boots.

My Dad says the multi-coloured buttons down the sides look like smarties. I saw them in a window at a mall around Christmas and I had wanted them so much since. I was so pleased then to get them for my birthday that I felt myself glowing and even more so when I wore them and have been getting compliments left and right.

I had lunch at Granville Island with my aunt and grandmother. Afterward I got a couple props for my blogging at the Kitchenware Market, one of the stores in the Net Loft. You’ll be seeing them in action soon – in fact, you might have already in my Baileys post (the red and white drinking straw). The rest of my presents were two Donna Hay Essentials cookbooks (Chocolate and Beef, Lamb + Pork) and a mighty explosion of Boosh: pins, The Pocket Book of Boosh, and a Mighty Boosh tee shirt. Someone was a happy girl!

A week or two ago before my birthday I was looking at old family photos, with my family, and we found these ones of me helping my grandmother make bread. Fond memories. It sometimes startles me when I reflect on my life so far, how much I was into baking and cooking from a young age (as exemplified in these photos).

(I’d wanted to include a couple more photos but I haven’t been able to scan them yet. Perhaps another post in the future!)

Even some of my favourite scenes from books and movies involve food, particularly children’s books like Roald Dahl’s. Later on I’d read food trivia about things like saccharine and the history of bubble gum (I wish I could remember what the book was called!) and take the liberty to inform everybody of what I’d learned, soaking it all up like a sponge. I wouldn’t hesitate to call myself a food nerd. Sometimes this information has been helpful, like when I’m making recipes or converting them. It only seems natural that I’d eventually write a food blog. Where it’ll take me from here I’m still finding out, but so far it’s been an adventure.

Photo of my boots and myself taken by my Mum. Photos of my small self taken by my aunt, back in the days when photos were still made with film.

Oh, you gorgeous girl, you, sharing all your loves, and from an early age, too–what fun! Happy birthday once again, Zoe! Your last as a teenager. Bittersweet. While you are already wise beyond your years, I only see your future bringing more terrific things for you!

I was going to get all deep and introspective in this post, but then I decided not to. Save it for another time and place, I say. Thanks, Shirley! I’ll enjoy this year to the fullest and make my last year as a teenager – and first year officially as a legal adult – worth it!